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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Here are some pictures of Jarl Sigvaldi and 3 Jomsvikings to be useds as sword for hire in SAGA. Minis from Gripping Beast.

Jarl Sigvaldi was the son of Strut-Harald the Jarl of Skåne and the brother of Thorkell the Tall (Torkjell Høge). He succeeded Palnatoke as the chieftain of the Jomsvikings, but he proved more wise than brave.

In order to win Astrid, the daughter of the Wendish chieftain Burislav, he promised to liberate the Wends of the tribute they had to pay to the Danes. He fulfilled his promise by sailing to Zealand where he sent the message to Sweyn Forkbeard that he had important tidings, but had fallen ill and could not come in person to bring them to him. As Sweyn was curious, he went aboard Sigvaldi's ship and was captured by the Jomsvikings. To be liberated the Danish king had to grant independence to both the Jomsvikings and to the Wends, in addition to paying a king's ransom. Svein also had to marry Gunhild of Wenden, daughter of Burislav and Burislav married Sweyn's sister Tyri.

At the funeral of his father, Strut-Harald, Sigvaldi was advised by Sweyn to attack Norway and to depose Haakon Jarl. This promise led to the Battle of Hjörungavágr in 986, from which Sigvald fled with disgrace.

In 1000, Sigvaldi proved to be treacherous at the Battle of Svolder, by luring Olaf Tryggvason to the battle and by deserting him in the heat of battle.

There is no record of him after the Battle of Svolder.
However, his brother Thorkell's invasion of England in 1009 was allegedly intended to avenge Sigvaldi's death

I dont know if Egil Skallagrimson and Jarl Sigvaldi ever meet but here they at least pose for this picture;)

Saturday, September 29, 2012

I have painted the Gripping Beast Egil Skallagrimson mini here are some pictures and a short re-cap of Egils saga...

Egil Skallagrimson (ca 910 - ca 990 ) was a Islandic Skald (Poet) and Warrior you can read about him in the "Egils saga".

Egill was born in Iceland, the son of Skalla-Grímr Kveldúlfsson and Bera Yngvarsdóttir, and the grandson of Kveld-Úlfr ("Evening Wolf"). When Grímr arrived in Iceland, he settled at Borg, the place where his father's coffin landed. Grímr was a respected chieftain and mortal enemy of King Harald Fairhair of Norway.

Egill composed his first poem at the age of three years. He exhibited berserk behaviour, and this, together with the description of his large and unattractive head, has led to the theory that he might have suffered from Paget's disease. This is corroborated by an archeological find of a head from the Viking era which is likely to be Egill's.

At the age of seven, Egill was cheated in a game with local boys. Enraged, he went home and procured an axe, and returning to the boys, split the skull of the boy who cheated him, to the teeth. After Berg-Önundr refused to allow Egill to claim his wife Ásgerðr's share of her father's inheritance, he challenged Önundr to a holmgang.

Later, after being grievously insulted, Egill killed Bárðr of Atley, a retainer of King Eirik Bloodaxe and kinsman of Queen Gunnhildr, both of whom spent the remainder of their lives trying to take vengeance. Seething with hatred, Gunnhildr ordered her two brothers to assassinate Egill and his brother Þórólfr, who had been on good terms with her previously. However, Egill slew the Queen's brothers when they attempted to confront him.

That same summer, Harald Fairhair died. In order to secure his place as sole King of Norway, Eirik Bloodaxe murderered his two brothers. He then declared Egill an outlaw in Norway. Berg-Önundr gathered a company of men to capture Egill, but was killed in his attempt to do so. Before escaping from Norway, Egill also slew Rögnvaldr, the son of King Eirik and Queen Gunnhildr. He then cursed the King and Queen, setting a horse's head on a Nithing pole and saying,

"Here I set up a níð-pole, and declare this níð against King Eiríkr and Queen Gunnhildr," — he turned the horse-head to face the mainland — "I declare this níð at the land-spirits there, and the land itself, so that all will fare astray, not to hold nor find their places, not until they wreak King Eiríkr and Gunnhildr from the land." He set up the pole of níð in the cliff-face and left it standing; he faced the horse's eyes on the land, and he carved runes upon the pole, and said all the formal words of the curse. (ch. 57).

Gunnhildr also put a spell on Egill, which made him feel restless and depressed until they met again.

Soon afterwards, Eiríkr and Gunnhildr were forced to flee to the Kingdom of Northumbria by Prince Hákon. In Saxon England, they were set up as King and Queen of Northumbria in rivalry with King Athelstan of England. Ultimately, Egill was shipwrecked in Northumbria and came before Eiríkr's court, where he was promptly sentenced to death. However, Egill had already composed a drápa in Eiríkr's praise the night before. Therefore, when Egill recited it the King's presence, Eiríkr grudgingly allowed his mortal enemy to leave with his head still on his shoulders (see "Head Ransom", below).

Ultimately, Egill returned to his family farm in Iceland, where he remained a power to be reckoned with in local politics. He lived into his eighties and died shortly before Iceland converted to Roman Catholicism. Before Egill died he buried his silver treasure near Mosfellsbær. In his last act of violence he murdered the servant who helped him bury his treasure. When a Roman Catholic chapel was constructed at the family homestead,

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

This is the second game in my and Jonas small Dux Britanniarum campaign set during the 9th century.

The antagonists are the Saxon warlord Aethelbald the Cruel a man of just 22 springs that had worked he´s way up much due to he´s tremendes constitution.

He´was always followed by he´s Champion Ealdwulf an old and experienced warrior and of course two of he´s childhod friends Leofric and Hacca.
By King Aella the Generous they was assigned to protect the northern coast from the Savage barbarians that attacked Lindisfarne last summer.

The sea riders was lead by Gutorm the Coward, of course no one dared to say it to he´s face as he was King Gudmunds second son. Gutorm didn´t even want to get out for a viking but as he was a man that liked other mens wifes he´s father thought it was best that he left home for a while...

To protect he´s son the old King Gudmund sent some of he´s best men. The old Champion Styrbjörn to make all the fighting, Sigvard and Ragnar was sent to lead the men, now they was out for some easy plunder...or not as they had go their ass kicked when they tryed to loot a church two month ago...

Klick on the pictures to read the saga of Gutorms second raid...

One more very nice game of Dux Britanniarum, my only concern are that it take a little to long to play, this time we played for about 3 houres and we didn´t even play the game to the end... might be that we look a little to much in the rules as we still learning, I hope we will speed it all up so we finish a game within 2 houres.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

As some of you might remember i got some of the Saxons Tents from Rendera at my Birthday back in August. As we at the moment play very much dark age games I thought it was time to get the ready for the gaming table...

As usual with the Rendera tents you get 2 of a closed one and 2 that have the "door" open.

They need some very easy esemble, as the end of the tent ridge are loose and so 2 tent poles for the ones with open "door"

I mounted them on 2mm MDF 110x50mm.

By the way...You don´t get a painted viking archer if you buy the tent, he´s just there for size comparison;)